Growing Pains
by Sofiana
Summary: Radu's going through an Andromedan growth spurt and driving the rest of the crew crazy! Meanwhile, an expedition to Rosie's Little Mercury" could lead to... me writing another story about someting else. We'll see. CH.5 IS UP!
1. Wimping Out

Radu sighed as his ears picked up the sound of Bova crunching on his midnight snack on the other side of the ship. Just when he thought he might finally drift off to sleep, it was snack time for Bova and that gave Radu one more thing to listen to. 

He had always been told that he would go through a period of insomnia at some point in his life. _The curse of a growing Andromedan._ That was what his group leader used to call it. During this phase of his life, a young Andromedan experienced many trials. Increased sensitivity to sound was one of the many changes he would have to adjust to. Lately, no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't block out anything during the night. He heard everything. 

_As if it weren't already loud enough around here._

As a result, Radu wasn't sleeping well. He had no choice but to lie awake and listen until he finally managed to doze off for a couple of hours at best. The listening droze him crazy. He found it difficult to focus his hearing on anything soothing, such as the sound of the Gizbot whirring too softly for any of the humans to hear. Instead, he had to listen to everything else that he normally managed to ignore. Harlan snoring in the next bed, Suzee tossing and turning, Bova getting up for snacks... (CRUNCH! SMACK, SMACK, SMACK, CRUNCH!) 

A certain Uranusian would be lucky if he lived through the night. 

Groaning, Radu clutched his pillow to his ears more tightly and turned over. 

* * *

"Mr. Radu, we could use a hand over here." 

The other four cadets responded by giggling and whispering. 

No response came from Radu. 

Seth Goddard shifted his focus from the central command console to the navigator, who was sound asleep on his console. He raised his eyebrows, surprised and a little concerned. All of the students were known to fall asleep during class, but they were usually wide-awake and alert by the time they arrived at the Command Post each day. Especially Radu. 

Without considering the Andromedan's sensitivity to loud noises, Goddard approached the console, and hovered over the boy. "Mr. Radu!" 

"AUGH!" His head jolted up, eyes popped open, and two gloved hands clasped his ears. 

Goddard stifled a laugh. The other students, however, were howling with laughter, 

"My apologies, Mr. Radu, but you know better than to fall asleep on the job." 

"Was I..." It took a moment for Radu to remember where he was. "Oh-oh y-yeah. Oh, um, sorry Commander Goddard. It's just that I, (yawn) I haven't been sleeping well lately." 

"I'm sorry to hear that," Goddard replied with understanding. If it had been anyone else, like say, Harlan Band or Suzee, he might not have accepted such an answer. But with Radu, he could always expect honesty. " But mow that you're awake, you can lend a hand while Harlan rewires the console." 

"Sure." The embarrassed Andromedan arose from his chair and walked over to the console. He leaned over and exerted a small amount of effort in lifting the console. Nothing happened. He tried again, using more force. Again, it did not budge. Radu tried a third time, pulling with all of his strength and straining until he was red in the face, partially from the struggle and partially from further humiliation. 

His classmates were staring at him, bewildered. 

"I uh- I can't pick it up." 

"Why not?" Harlan crossed his arms across his chest. "It isn't any heavier than when you picked it up last week. Wimping out on us, Radu?" 

Harlan was teasing, but Radu swallowed hard. Although Harlan could not have known it, the barb had been a pretty accurate one. 

"I guess I should tell you," Radu reluctantly confronting the stares of his classmates and Commander Goddard. "Um, things with me are going to be... different lately." 


	2. Those Ears Get Bigger

"Andromedan biology isn't just weird," Harlan announced. "It's beyond weird." 

Harlan was saying this to Suzee, Rosie, and Bova at lunch. As for Radu, who knew where he was? He admittedly had not been feeling great that morning and gave an explination that puzzled everyone on the ship. He said something about an Andromedan curse and then asked to be excused for the day. Goddard allowed it, seeing that Radu was not faking anything. 

"I still don't quite understand what's going on with him." Rosie had been pondering the situation with Radu; it was always exciting to find out more about another species. Particularly, Andromedans, with their unique biology. 

"Why do you think his strength has been affected?" She wondered. Then she glanced over at Harlan who was busy gagging over his freshly rehydrated lunch. "Do you have any ideas?" 

"Me?" Harlan raised an eyebrow. "How should I know?" 

"Well, you're the only one here with actual experience as an Andromedan." 

"For a day," Harlan said wryly. "Andromedan strength was great. The rest of it... the hair, the cinnabun ears, the noise... that I could do without. But I'd take Andromedan strength over human strength any day." 

"We know that, Rhombie-brain," Suzee rolled her eyes. "But that doesn't answer Rosie's question." 

"She's got you there," Radu piped up, having overheard the entire conversation before entering the room. 

"I thought you didn't listen to private conversations," Suzee frowned. She knew Radu's policy on eavesdropping, and this wasn't like him. She also kept a similar policy, choosing not to invade the consciousness of her friends, even though she was capable. 

"Lately, I don't have an option." 

"The Andromedan Curse?" Bova asked. "That's what you called it, right?" 

"It isn't actually called that," Radu admitted. "I don't know the name for it. I only know that the end result will reward me with adult-sized Andromedan ears. In the next two weeks, my ears are supposed to develop between three to five more spirals--" 

"You mean those ears get bigger?" Harlan blurted out. Rosie knudged him gently. 

"I get to deal with a lot between now and then," Radu replied, calmly ignoring Harlan's comment. "Like what you guys can already see... my strength is affected, my sense of direction is even thrown off, and my hearing is more sensitive. And it is taking every ounce of my concentration and patience to try to screen out all of the extra noise. Forgive me if my patience has run out." 

The others nodded, and everyone, even Harlan, sympathezied with Radu. 

"You seem to be feeling better," Rosie noted. 

"Yeah, I finally managed to sleep," Radu replied. "I just needed to sleep." 

"Is this like... Andromedan puberty?" Bova asked. _Someone had to._

But Radu was laughing as though the question were crazy. "No, no, it isn't that! When _that_ happened, my voice just changed and... well, _normal_ stuff. That happened to me a long time ago. No, this is entirely different. It is part of growing up, yes, but not puberty!" 

The others stared at him wearing blank expressions. 

"I can't believe you thought it was that," Radu added, grinning. "I am not _that_ weird, you guys. I know you'd love to think that." 

"That's not true!" Rosie immediately rose to her feet. "I don't think that. Neither do the rest of us." 

Radu didn't seem to care one way or the other. He seemed to be thinking of something else. Suddenly, he slapped his knee and jumped to his feet. The others exchanged looks. 

"Oh, there's something -- I've got to do!" Radu's eyes danced with sudden inspiration. "I just remembered. They told me a long time ago that I could... Hey, hey, I'll see you guys later." 

With that, he ran off. 

"_Weird_ Andromedan," Harlan muttered under his breath. 

Radu peeked his head in the door, still grinning. 

"I know, I know," Harlan exclaimed, throwing up his hands. "You heard that." 

Laughing, Radu left again to do... whatever he was going to do.   


**A/N from Radu386: **What am I going to do? Venture a guess, anyone??? 


	3. Can't Call You HairDo

**A/N:** Okay, Lokaia, you don't have to endure a cliffy ending for long. I won't keep you guessing. Here comes the next chapter. I'm hoping for a review. :D Or two. :D From you. 

* * *

  


Rosie couldn't believe her luck. At the moment, she was witnessing the most beautiful site. And to think, if she hadn't had ComPost duty, she might not have been the first one to see it. 

"Look, Bova!" She pointed to the screen, proud to be the first to spot the magnificent planet that was still a long distance away. Right now, the planet looked tiny, but it was probably quite big. Even miles away, it produced a brilliant gleam. A miniature dot in the sky, as beautiful as Mercury herself. 

"Hm?" Bova stretched and yawned, his eyes unwilling to open. "What is it, now?" 

"Little Mercury!" Rosie couldn't resist giving her new planet a nickname. 

"Huh?" Bova opened his eyes. "Mercury? We're back in the Sol System?" 

"No, silly," Rosie rolled her eyes. "But we did come across a new planet. A tiny, little Mercury!" 

"A fake-out," Bova narrowed his eyes. "I should have known that. We still have five years, four months, and twenty-seven days left on this trip. Of course, we'll _probably_ stumble upon another white circle and end up seven more years away from home. But who really wanted to go home in the first place? Who's to say we'd be better off at home? We were flunking out. We'll probably get into trouble because Catalina is stuck in the wrong dimension. When we do get back, they'll fire Commander Goddard and Ms. Davenport right away. You see, we're doomed either way." 

Rosie sighed. "Bova, c'mon. Don't spoil my fun." 

"Okay, okay," Biting back pessimistic comebacks, Bova took a look at the planet on the screen. It really was bright. Almost as bright as Mercury, like Rosie had said. _I bet we'll all burn to the crisp once we get close to that place. All but Rosie, I guess._

But instead of voicing his thoughts, Bova said: "Yeah, that's... um, a very... nice planet. Appears to be, anyway. For all we know, it could be... uhh, I mean, it could be... fun to take a closer look. We'd have to alter our course to do it, though." 

"Do you think Commander Goddard would agree to that?" 

"No..." Again, Bova changed his mind mid-sentence. "No... way to tell. Let's find out. Why don't you just call everyone to the ComPost?" 

"Of course!" Rosie beamed, leaning towards the intercom. "I should have done it before."   


* * *

  


Radu was grinning as another chunk of his hair fell into the sink. 

He continued cutting, nearly finished with the job now. The result was going to be shocking... _and if I do say so myself, quite stunning._

With one side finished, he was preparing to work on the other side when the familiar whir of the jumptubes interrupted him. He lowered the scissors and turned to face Harlan coming out of the tube. 

"Harlan, h-hi," Radu stammered, hiding the scissors behind his back and turning his head to the right, trying to hide the short hair on his right side. "I thought you and Suzee were playing minbar chess." 

"Can you believe I beat her so fast?" Harlan said, laughing. "I wish you would've been there to see the look on her face. What have you been up to, anyway? I haven't seen you since lunch." 

Turning his head to display his shortened locks, Radu smiled coyly. 

Harlan gasped. "What the -- what are you doing? I thought you, w-wait, you can't..." 

"Can't cut my hair?" Radu supplied, still smiling. "Usually that's the case. But right now is one of the few times in my life that I actually _can_ cut my hair without much difficulty. Since my hair follicles have been temporarily weakened, I can..." 

"Your hair follicles have -- " Harlan narrowed his eyes. "Been temporarily weakened? Along with the rest of your body! All this trouble for two or three more spirals in your ears?" 

"More like three or four or five more spirals," Radu hastily corrected. "Two would be pretty pathetic." 

"Whatever," Harlan shook his head, now smiling at his friend's appearance. It would take some time to get used to a short-haired Radu. "I guess once you hack off the other half, I can't call you Hair-Do anymore." 

"Oh, it'll grow back," Radu assured him, turning to the mirror and getting ready to finish the job. He caught a glimpse of his ears in the mirror. They were slightly tender, but for a good reason. Already, the first new spiral had begun to develop in each ear. He was that much closer to being an adult. 

"Hey everyone," Rosie's voice came over the intercom. "Could you report to the Command Post, please? And hurry!" A hint of urgency was in her voice. 

Radu lowered the scissors again. "Sounds like trouble." 

"Wouldn't be a good day without it!" Harlan agreed. "Come on!" 

"But what about my hair?" 

"Forget your hair!" Harlan insisted. "Rosie said to hurry. C'mon!"   
  
**A/N:** REVIEWS. REVIEWS REVIEWS REVIEWS. (please?) 


	4. Altering The Course Would Be Fairly Simp...

Commander Goddard was the first one out of the jump tubes. Since it was not the norm for one of the cadets, particularly Rosie, to call everyone to the Command Post, he was expecting a shock. He nearly expected to see an asteroid headed their way or a Spung Killcruiser looming up ahead. Instead... 

"Ms. Ianni, did you call us all to the Command Post just to see -- a planet?!" 

"That's it?" Suzee exclaimed, wringing out her hair. "You ruined a perfectly good shower for that?" 

"You got the floor wet," Harlan pointed out, but THELMA was already mopping it up. 

"Yes, but-but," Rosie shone slightly and the others were reminded that if upset, she might overheat and unintentionally put them in danger. "It's just that we haven't seen a single planet in... months! And Bova says that if we don't alter our course right away, we won't be able to get a good look at it." She bit her lip, embarrassed. "It... It reminds me of Mercury." 

Rosie wasn't overheating, but the crew was starting to melt. 

This was the moment when Goddard realized he had gone soft. 

"I suppose we could... pass by." 

Miss Davenport gave him a side-long glance and a small smile. 

"It wouldn't take much, really," Bova spoke up, unusually open to the idea of checking out the planet and having nothing gloomy to say about the situation. 

(For Rosie, though, Bova might do anything.) 

"Commander, before you arrived, I searched the SpaceNet to see if it might have any information about this sector. That planet is named Ozonia because the ground-level ozone on the planet is lethal. No species could survive there..." 

"I could." Suzee couldn't resist reminding everyone that she could breathe in any atmosphere. Even high concentrations of ground-level ozone. 

" But the atmosphere surrounding the planet isn't harmful," Bova went on. "We couldn't land on it... not that we wanted to... but it wouldn't do any harm to pass by for a closer look. And altering our course would be fairly..." He trailed off. 

Bova had almost said 'simple.' Then he had glanced at Radu and remembered that his Andromedan sense of direction was out of whack, along with everything else. 

"Whoa, what happened to you?" Bova exclaimed, doing a double take at Radu's new look. 

Radu blushed furiously as the others did the same thing as Bova. 

"There are three times in my life that I can cut my hair," Radu reluctantly explained. "This is one of them." 

"You might want to even it out a little," Suzee snickered, seeing that it was still long on the left side and bluntly cut above his ears on the right. 

Radu didn't get the joke. "I'm not done," he said, flatly. "Rosie interrupted me." 

"Sorry," Rosie whispered, a little put off by Radu's attitude. 

"Mr. Radu, will you be able to plot the course, given your situation?" Ms. Davenport asked the same thing that Bova had been wondering, in an attempt to avert the focus from Radu's astranged hairstyle back to the matter at hand. 

"Um..." Radu fidgeted. His sense of direction had been the first thing to go. Last week, when the whole ordeal had begun, he misguided Harlan during a practice session and took the ship in the wrong direction by a long shot. He had been hassled by Harlan and interrogated by Goddard. But neither had learned the true reason for Radu's troubles at the time. 

"Well?" Goddard demanded an answer right away. His patience with Radu was running out. 

"I-I can do it." Radu sounded fairly confident. He closed his eyes, thinking for a minute. It required a great deal of precision to make the change. He concentrated, and amazingly, it came to him. Clearer than ever before. It was so obvious that he almost laughed. 

"Alter the course to Y-axis 118.24. Just turn the nose a hair, and we're close enough for a good look. A-and still a safe distance away from the planet." 

He opened his eyes to meet Commander Goddard's; Goddard didn't look nearly as convinced as he typically did when Radu spouted off a coordinate. With good reason. 

But Radu smiled. "I couldn't be more sure on this one, Commander." He meant that, wholeheartedly. 

"That's good enough for me, Commander," Harlan put in. The others nodded in agreement. 

That was good enough for Goddard; he gave in. "Go to it, Mr. Radu." 

"Good to have you back," Harlan knudged Radu and grinned. 

Radu tried to return the friendly gesture. But he couldn't even manage that. He couldn't help wondering what the sudden return of his sense of direction might mean. It couldn't mean what he thought it meant, _could it?_

The thought lingered, and distracted Radu. He managed to hide his preoccupation from the crew as he plotted the course. 

Or so he thought. Little did he know, Harlan had taken notice.   


* * *

**A/N:** I changed my penname. I wanted something that could be my nickname and since I'm a girl, Radu doesn't exactly fit :/ I've named myself after Sofiana Mrtz, who appeared on an episode of Space Cases. So, just call me Sofiana! 


	5. Are You Hearing Us, Radu?

"He's changed," Harlan told Suzee at dinner. "This whole ordeal has changed him." 

"No, he hasn't," Suzee argued. "He said it himself, he's just going through a rough time." 

As if on cue, Radu walked in at that moment. Naturally, he had heard them. But they knew that he would. Obviously, they didn't care. _They probably want me to know,_ Radu thought bitterly. 

Radu's haircut was now finished. He had spent most of the day working on it. 

Suzee couldn't imagine what had taken him so long to do it. Although she had been known to spend hours on her own hair, it was not typical for Radu, unless he had to wash it. A haircut shouldn't have taken half a day. 

Suzee wondered if maybe Harlan _was_ right. Something really did seem to be bothering Radu. He appeared to be in a daze as he dialed up his dinner, which turned out to be quock brains, one of his favorites. Even that didn't provoke a comment or a smile from him. 

"Something's wrong," Suzee mouthed to Harlan, while Radu's back was turned. 

"No, Nothing's wrong," said Radu, irritably. 

"What the- " Suzee was flabbergasted. "I didn't even say anything! I mouthed it." 

"You said it," Radu replied, flatly as he turned to face them. 

Suzee was at a loss for words. Indeed, she must have spoken. She had uttered her words too softly for her own ears to hear. 

"So, what if she did say it, huh?" Harlan had enough of Radu's big mouth for one day. _(And since when did Radu have such a big mouth?)_ "This... whatever it is, it's making you really annoying and unpleasant, Radu. And I don't mind saying that to your face." 

Radu bit his lip and blushed, staring at his shoes. It was a refreshing site to the others; at that moment, he seemed more like the old Radu. The Radu they had all grown to love during the time they'd spent together on the Christa. 

"What's wrong?" Suzee pleaded. "You can tell us." 

"You wouldn't understand," he said, almost in a whisper. 

"We'll try," Rosie put in. 

There was a long pause as Radu considered that. Finally, he gave in. 

"The rest of my hair was..." It seemed hard for him to say. "D-difficult to cut." 

Silence followed. 

"So what?" They were all thinking it, but Bova was the one to say it. 

"So, this is it!" Radu exploded. Then he calmed himself, seeing that his friends had recoiled and were giving him looks. "My strength is returning, too. My sense of direction is back. You see, it's over. Already. That means, my ears... this is it. I've got one new spiral in each ear. One." 

More confused silence. 

"And?" Bova pressed on. 

"And there goes my dignity, my pride," Radu went on, now close to tears. Miserably, he slumped down in one of the chairs and hid his face in shame as the tears came. There was an uncomfortable silence at the table as the others could only look on, not knowing what they could do and not understanding Radu's pain. 

_Two would be pretty pathetic._ Harlan considered what Radu had told him earlier. If two was pathetic, then one must mean... 

"Deformed," Radu whimpered, a lone tear running down his cheek. "I'm deformed. I'll have the ears of a child for the rest of my life. And that's how I'll be treated because that's how I look." He sobbed. "Do you get it, now?" 

They were beginning to. 

"I never fit in with other Andromedans." His voice shook as his troubles poured out. "That's why they were happy to send me off to Starcadamy with out so much as a goodbye. More like a good ridance. I always hoped, you know, I-I thought that maybe someday I could change that. But I won't now. There's no chance for a deformed Andromedan in our society. No chance." 

"I don't see deformed when I look at you," Rosie spoke quietly, but her tone was unusually firm. It got Radu's attention. "None of us do." 

"And you're no more of a _misfit_ than the rest of us," Harlan added. "And I mean that." 

A stunned Radu was speechless. 

"Are you hearing us, Radu?" That came from a smiling Rosie. She provoked a tiny small from Radu. 

"We aren't looking down on you. You shouldn't look down on yourself." 

The mood at the table had changed. Radu's friends suddenly had a new understanding of the most mysterious member of their crew, and for that, they were glad. Radu had a new understanding of who he was to his friends, to the people who mattered most to him. He wasn't Radu, the outcast of Andromedan society. He was just Radu. 

"You can look on the bright side," Bova began. He hesitated, looking around the table with a sly grin. He had them on the edge of their seats. "You're all paying attention, I see, because I don't say that much. Well, listen up, because it may be years before I say that again. On the _bright side_, Radu... at least you can sleep again!" 

Laughter followed. Radu settled back in his chair, more satisfied than he'd been in a long time. With his friends. With his life on the Christa. Even with his own appearance. 

And his satisfaction grew when Suzee leaned over to him and whispered: 

"And, by the way, I love that haircut on you."   


* * *

  
Sofiana's Notes:   


Sound like the end? NOT QUITE... we've got one more loose end to tie up in the tale, mind you. And it just might create a whole bunch of new loose ends (But they won't be retied in THIS story, if all goes to plan. I never know. So I'll keep you and myself guessing 'til next time. Ciao!)   
P.S. I have lots of mistakes in the first two or three chapters to fix. (because I was too hasty about posting them! Don't make that mistake, EVER!) Bear with me; I'll fix them soon. 


End file.
